Ross County: Richard Brittain double brings out emotion

Richard Brittain was a relieved man after leading Ross County to an impressive 3-0 victory against an out-of-sorts St Mirren side at Global Energy Stadium.

The County captain has been in the spotlight this week after his wife Diane condemned the abuse her husband has received after changing his mind over signing a pre-contract agreement with St Johnstone on her internet blog.

Brittain shrugged off the controversy by scoring two goals as County recorded their first victory of the season.

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He said: “After the week I’ve had it was nice to cap it off with a win. I enjoyed the goals. We’ve been through a lot emotionally, not just this week but for the last five months. It was a relief to get that (first) goal and then the second so there was a lot of emotion coming out.

“It feels like a line has been drawn under everything in this last week. As far as we are concerned it is done and dusted now and we can start afresh.”

He added: “I’ve never been in this position so I don’t know what will happen family-wise. We’ll do our best to put it behind us but it’s not a thing you can put a timescale on. We’ll work through it as a family. Hopefully things are getting easier.”

Brittain, who was suspended for the first two games of the season, admitted the stress of the situation affected his game. He said: “Last week was my first game of the season and it was probably the poorest performance in my career. So it was good to come out in my first competitive appearance at home to get a couple of goals and put an end to it.”

Brittain admitted Saturday’s match was the first one his wife had attended since the start of last season. He said: “My mum and dad were there, along with my father-in-law. It was my wife’s first game since the 1-1 draw with Celtic at the start of last season.

“There’s no better feeling than finding the back of the net but it is especially sweet when your family are there. There was a lot of emotion in that (first) goal, that’s for sure.”

Saints’ defender Danny Grainger felt the goals could have been avoided. He said: “You look at the goals and they were all down to ourselves, they weren’t anything drastic done by Ross County. They stuck to their gameplan and took their chances when they came along.

“We tried to change the way we played at Inverness and lost 3-0. The manager wants us to play football and we have players who can do it, but it’s not happening at the minute.

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“The boys are disappointed with the result but we can’t believe how we lost the game 3-0 considering the chances we missed. Apart from a couple of early long-range shots from Richie Brittain and the three goals that was all they had. They took all their chances.”

The 27-year-old added: “We can’t complain about the result but we are not too disheartened yet.

“I don’t think it’s confidence. We are still passing the ball and are happy to take it even when it’s tight.”